A challenging hashpoint! After driving through a rare Oregon lightning storm west out of Portland, we parked close to the ODOT facility gate, then walked east against heavy traffic on the shoulder of US 26 to get past a swampy area. As it turned out, the problem wasn't swamp, it was a surprisingly steep slope of 1 to 1 or more, upwards through thick forest and windfall. It was a walk of only about 600 feet from the highway, but until close to the end every foot was purchased with quite a bit of exertion.

Once we were at the top, it looked like there might be a more gradual way back down if we took the long way behind and to the east of the ODOT station. That worked like a charm -- highly recommended if anybody makes a late-day stab at this one -- and soon we were celebrating Frogman's conquest of the McMinnville graticule and Washington County, and heading off for a run on the Banks-Vernonia Trail.

Michael doesn't think that he deserves this one because he "didn't get hurt" while completing the expedition, which I think is silly because this was a pretty difficult hashpoint to access. Under his definition I qualify for the achievement because my legs got scratched up by thorny vines - I was wearing shorts, while he was wearing sweats. It's probably a little unhealthy that I'm glad I came in shorts so that I qualified for the achievement.